In the census for 1861 Harry is shown as being 4 years of age and a scholar.

In 1871 the census records show that George is no longer a Labourer but is a farmer. I have no knowledge of how large the farm might be. Harry is a young man of 15 and at this time is working on the farm.

Tracing Harry in 1881 inititally proved very difficult. The 1881 census for Crediton shows that he was no longer residing with the remaining members of his family. This entry also shows that his father George had remarried as the wife’s name is Emma and not Maria. The two youngest children are as a result of George’s remarriage.

The 1881 census for Harry’s family is shown under George Loosemore 1818 - 1910

It is known that in 1873 George Loosemore signed Apprenticeship papers to enable Harry to be trained as a butcher. He was apprenticed to Herbert Trickey of West Sandford although checking the records for the Trickey family there is no sign of Harry residing with them in 1881 and we know that by 1891 he had arrived in Lambeth.

The indentures signed when he took up the Apprenticeship with Herbert Trickey in 1873 state that he will serve as an indoor apprentice until he attains the age of 21 which would have been in March 1877. Unfortunately this period is neatly between the two census records of 1871 and 1881. This indicates that he should still have been resident in West Sandford until early 1877. As can be seen from the 1881 census for the Trickey family in Sandford there is no evidence of any butcher’s assistant living with them.

We know that Harry completed his apprenticeship as he is shown in the 1891 census working as a journeyman butcher in Lambeth. It is therefore likely that he would be working as a butcher from 1877 onwards. Where was a mystery. He may have remained working for Herbert Trickey or obtained a post in another butcher’s shop in the West Country. What is not evident is when he decided to leave Devon and travel to London to work. Obviously it was prior to 1884 but may not have predated his marriage by many years. The only chance of pinpointing this move was to locate his residence in 1881. We know his marriage to Julia Coward took place on April 1st 1884 at the Parish Church of St Mary Lambeth. Did they meet while he was an apprentice or still living in Devon and before Julia moved to London or did they meet in the Camberwell district where Julia was possibly in service near to her sister Flora. The distance between West Sandford and Buckhorn Weston is some 73 miles and given the relative difficulty of travel in the 1880’s I think it unlikely that they met before they both moved to London.

After many hours trying to find Harry in the 1881 census I finally located him in Chester Street, Lambeth. The reasons for his elusiveness can be seen from the detail of the census. His marital status appears to have been entered initially as ‘Mar’ and then overtyped with a ‘W’ or a ‘U’. It has been interpreted for indexing as W which is unexpected. His surname is entered as Looseman rather than Loosemore. These misinterpretations meant that he was not to be located easily. I have shown the census entry as it appears but I am certain that it should show as Harry Loosemore Lodger Single aged 25 Butcher.

This 1881 census entry is recorded under Enumeration District 5 of Sub District Lambeth Church Second. The description of this district is as follows:

“Parts of the Parish of Lambeth comprising all Oakden St, Kennington Rd, East side from Ship Lane to Chester St including a mansion (Dr Farrs) Chester Garden & Walcot Cottages in a lane near St Phillips Church in the Kennington Rd, all Chester Street with all the yards in Chester Street St Phillips Church is here situated in the Kennington Rd”

Oakden Street and Kennington Road still exist as does a Walcot Square which may be in the locale of Walcot Cottages. Chester Street has now been renamed Chester Way. It is shown on the 1875 map of Lambeth shaded red below.

The image below shows the status of Chester Street in the Poverty Map of 1898/99. The colouring shows a mixed occupancy from poor to comfortable. It is unlikely that the area had deteriorated significantly between 1881 and 1898. In fact it is more than likely that it would have improved. In view of this Harry's introduction to the 'big city' must have been quite alarming as it is possible that Chester Street was poorer at that time.

So we now know that Harry left Devon at some time in the four years between Spring 1877 and the census which was taken in the first week of April 1881. This probably lends more weight to the likelihood of Harry and Julia meeting in Lambeth. If Julia was in service then it is possible that she met Harry at his place of work when buying meat for the family for whom she worked. The marriage certificate shows that Harry and Julia were married in Lambeth Q2 1884 vol 1d page 685. I have been unable to definitely locate the address from which Harry was married. It is shown on the certificate as what appears to be Normington Road. This no longer exists on the modern map of London. There is a Normington Close but as this is in Streatham some 5 miles distant it is unlikely that Normington Road was in that area in 1884. I suspect that the street name has been entered incorrectly and actually refers to either Newington Butts or Newington Crescent both of which are in the same vicinity. They are highlighted in orange in the former map. Julia gives her address as St Mary Square which is only a five minute walk from Chester Street.

In 1891 Harry and Julia are living in Thornton Street in Lambeth

The census shows that Bertha was born in Kennington while the other two children are shown as Brixton. This tends towards the theory that Harry was living in another address in 1885 and possibly arrived in Thornton Street in early 1887 before the birth of George. It is interesting to note that in 1891 another family of Loosemores lived at No 13 Thornton Street, presumably directly opposite the home of Harry and Julia

Harry had three older brothers William, Harry (Henry) and Robert. Although the entry for 13 Thornton Street appears to be ‘Wm’ short for William, in 1891 his brother William would have been about 41 years of age and not 37 as shown in the census record. I believe that Henry may not have survived into the 1890’s and so I suspect that the Loosemore shown at No 13 was in fact Harry’s cousin William who was born in 1853. Subsequent research has discovered that the wife of Harry’s cousin William was called Ellen and she was born in 1857. The family at No 13 were all shown as being born in Crediton so it is probable that they followed Harry and Julia to Lambeth and set up house next door probably in 1890. Edward Taylor and his wife are shown as a separate household but living in the same house as William and Ellen. This is supported by the fact that it was possible for Harry to have two unrelated lodgers in his house so the properties apparently offered sufficient rooms to support two households although at that time many more people lived in significantly smaller dwellings than is commonplace today. The census shows that William and Ellen lived in 4 rooms while the Taylors occupied 2 this presumably means that part of the property was deemed to be a separate unit. In Harry’s household there is no indication of the number of rooms occupied as there were more than 5 rooms in the property so the lodgers were sharing the family home.

The 1901 census is shown under Bernard Loosemore 1892 – 1971

Now that the 1911 census has been released I have been able to trace the family of Harry and Julia in that year. They are still resident in Thornton Street which is as expected given that Bernard gave that as his address when he married in 1916. Bernard is not there in 1911 but as he joined the Royal Navy in 1909 and the census was taken on the night of Sunday 2nd April 1911 when he was on board HMS Juno this is not surprising.

The 1911 Census for Thornton Street Lambeth is shown on the photographs page

The 1911 census provides information not available in earlier census records.

It shows the number of years the householders have been married. In the case of Harry and Julia this is shown as 26 years which validates the data somewhat. We know that they married on 13th April 1884 so if the census had been taken 11 days later then they would have celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary. It also shows the number of children born alive, still living and deceased. In the case of Harry and Julia they had 7 children born alive, 6 children still living and 1 deceased. Research has shown that the one child they lost was Ethel Louise who died the previous year. The number of rooms in the property are shown as six. The definition of room states ‘count the kitchen as a room but do not count scullery, landing, lobby, closet, bathroom: nor warehouse, office, shop; If we assume the property would have a kitchen and two living rooms then that leaves only 3 bedrooms. Not a lot of space for a family which in 1891 comprised 5 adults and 3 children under 10. Of these, two adults were lodgers. The third was Julia’s brother and the other two Harry and Julia. Assuming that the adults occupied the 3 bedrooms then it calls into question who shared their bedroom with the three children, two girls and one boy. We can speculate that the girls shared their parents bedroom and George probably slept in the same room as 18 year old Richard Coward.

Harry Loosemore died in Lambeth Q4 1932 vol 1d page 283. His death certificate shows that he died on 25th October 1932 aged 76 at 66 Bramah Road Brixton. His occupation is given as ‘Formerly a Butcher (journeyman)’ The death was registered by his son George who lived next door but one at 62 Bramah Road.

My father Albert is believed to have told my sister Jane that Harry is buried in a cemetery very close to where my niece Lucy Morgan was living in Streatham. Time has a habit of altering distances and so I do not know how close to Streatham the burial was likely to have been. However there are three possible cemeteries in the Streatham area, they are:

Lambeth Cemetery Blackshaw Road opened in 1854Streatham Cemetery Garratt Lane opened in 1892Streatham Park Cemetery Rowan Road opened in 1909

It could be any one of these as they are all about 5 miles from his address in 1901 Thornton Street Brixton. However I feel fairly confident that he will be found in Streatham Park Cemetery as it is the newest and also fits the description of being close to Streatham Hill where Lucy was living.When the death certificate was obtained as shown above it became clear that he was living in Bramah Street at the date of his death.Further research has now produced the actual location of Harry's grave.

On 28th March 2011 I visited Lambeth cemetery on Blackshaw Road and attempted to find plot 301 in area K2 which had been identifed as the location of not only Harry but also his wife Juliana. The area was clearly shown on the map given to me by the cemetery staff but the plot could only be found by searching amongst the gravestones. Some gravestones had the plot number marked on the reverse but none of them had the relevant number showing. So the next move was to find the nearest number and from that try to calculate the position of plot 301 in relation to them. The nearest marked stone was for plot 305 so the one I was seeking should be 4 places to theleft or right of this. There were no plot numbers of any of the other stones still standing in the vicinity and beyond them was an area of open grass in both directions. Alas it seemed that the grave had not been marked with a headstone....

Not wanting to give up I looked more closely at the turf in the area where the grave should have been. Nothing was visible to the right but in the most likely position to the left of the marked gravestone I noticed a small gap through which could be seen part of an inscription. All that was visible were the letters "LAD" "MOR" and the date 1918. This was not what I needed as Harry had died in 1932 and Julia in 1934. However the letters "MOR" intrigued me.

I scraped away at the edges of the overgrown turf and gradually more of the name was revealed "GLADYS" "SEMORE". Realising that what I was seeing was actually the resting place of Julia Gladys Loosemore who had died in 1918 at the age of 21, I needed to remove more of the covering grass but that would not be achieved with bare hands. I consulted with the cemetery staff who said that as long as the area was not damaged and left tidy they had no objection to removal of the grass covering the tablet. One of them kindly offered to do the job for me and in due course the full story emerged.

From what was revealed it was clear that the plot had first been obtained for the burial of Julia Gladys Loosemore in 1918, as the cemetery records subsequently showed that the owner of the plot at that time was Harry Loosemore. When he passed away in 1932 he was buried with his daughter and later in 1934 his wife Juliana joined them. Ownership of the plot at that time passed to Bertha Dais Loosemore who never married and is still shown as the owner although she passed away in 1972.I was delighted to have found the resting place of my great grandparents and also the surprise discovery that the grave also holds the remains of Julia whose whereabouts I had not expected to find. The final image below shows the tablet as I left it, probably the first time it has been this visible for more than forty years....Rest In Peace Harry, Juliana and Julia

The details of Julia A Coward’s family and her ancestors have been provided in the Coward section.

It is believed that Julia Coward was born in Buckhorn Weston which is on the border of Dorset and Somerset in about 1865.

I have attempted to track down her birth certificate but this is proving somewhat elusive. According to her marriage certificate her name is Julia Coward and her residence is in London. By the time we get to Bernard Loosemore’s birth certificate she is shown as Julia Annie Loosemore with a birthplace of what appears to be Somt Weston, which I believe refers to somewhere called Weston in Somerset. The only town or village called Weston is on the outskirts of Bath and there are no suitable birth records for a J Coward in that area. There is no record of a Julia A Coward being born anywhere in Somerset between 1863 and 1867 which would conform with her age as shown on the marriage certificate.However there are entries as follows

I have discounted Julia Agnes Coward as although her age is correct and her father’s name is John he is shown in the 1871 census as a joiner and 1881 as a builder when we know from the marriage certificate that the occupation of Julia’s father was agricultural labourer. Mere is only 8 miles from Buckhorn Weston but is in Wiltshire.

For this reason I am focusing on Juliana Coward. Wincanton is only 4.5 miles from Buckhorn Weston. Juliana as a first name could very easily be modified in general usage to either Julia, or Julia Annie. The discovery of her death certificate in 1934 confirms that Juliana and Julia Annie are one and the same person.

Her birth certificate shows she was born in Buckhorn Weston on 9th November 1865, the daughter of John Coward Farm Labourer and Grace Coward formerly Goddard. Interestingly the registrar entered both her parents with the name Goddard and subsequently corrected it to Coward.

The 1911 census for Harry and Julia Loosemore confirms that Julia was born in Buckhorn Weston Somerset

Following this line of research, the 1871 census shows a Julia Coward aged 5 living with her parents John and Grace Coward in Buckhorn Weston. This seems to be the first usage modification of her forename.

The 1871 Census for Buckhorn Weston is shown on the Photographs page

By 1881 Julia no longer appears at the family home in Buckhorn Weston. Unlike her future husband Harry Loosemore who I eventually found in Lambeth, I have been unable to locate her in any of the 1881 census records. She would at that time have been only just 15 years of age but quite possibly in service.

Julia married in 1884 and so her appearance in the 1891 census is as the wife of Harry Loosemore now living in London. It would appear that she left Buckhorn Weston some time after the 1871 census and before marrying Harry Loosemore in 1884. The most likely date for this would have been around 1881. She is unlikely to be staying with her sister in 1881 as Flora was a domestic servant and unlikely to have been in the position to accommodate a younger sibling. Flora is the elder of the Coward children so there are no others that Julia could have been staying with at that time. Because of this I think it is most likely that she was either erroneously omitted from the Buckhorn Weston census or else she was working away from home and has similarly been missed from the census or recorded such that she has not been possible to locate.

The next question which presents itself to us is when and where she met Harry Loosemore for the first time. Did she meet him in London or in Buckhorn Weston. There is no way of confirming this, it is possible that she and her sister Flora both went up to London in the early 1880’s to go into service and it is there that Julia met Harry. The marriage certificate does not show Julia as having an occupation at the time of her marriage. This could be because the registrar failed to enter it or because she failed to notify her occupation at the time, or even that she was actually not working anywhere. Perhaps she met Harry while visiting her sister in London but as previously mentioned we do not know where she would have stayed.

Flora was working in Wincanton in 1881 and then in Overhill Road Camberwell in 1891 some 5 miles from St Mary Square. Ten years earlier she was a servant in Wincanton so possibly in 1884 she was working closer to St Mary Square Lambeth.

As for the marriage certificate it gives us some useful areas for further investigation.

Neither of the witnesses are family members. One, Thomas Nettlefold appears in the 1881 census for Lambeth as a Sexton and Undertaker living at 135 Lambeth Road. I have not been able to trace the other witness Ellen Roberts in 1881 as yet. It is possible that Thomas Nettlefold was the Sexton at St Mary’s and acted as witness in the absence of any family members, who may have found a journey from Devon to London for the wedding out of their reach either physically or financially. Harry’s father would have been 65 at the time and had remarried to Emma Dart. In 1884 they were bringing up a family of four children aged from 5 to 13.

If Flora was working in London in 1884 why would she not have acted as a witness to the ceremony? It is commonplace for witnesses to represent each side of the marriage. If we assume that the first witness represents the groom then that means that if there is any connection between the witnesses and the married couple then Ellen Roberts is probably connected in some way to Julia. If Julia was working in Lambeth then perhaps Ellen was a co-worker.

The marriage certificate for Julia and Harry Loosemore shows that she was living in St Mary Square at the time of her marriage. Now that I have found Harry in 1881 it is clear that he and Julia lived very close to each other in 1884. St Mary Square is about 500 feet or 1 minutes walk from Oakden Street which we know is in the vicinity of Chester Street where Harry was lodging in 1881.

Julia Loosemore died age 68 on 16th February 1934 at 66 Bramah Road Brixton. The death certificate shows her name as Juliana which confirms my earlier convictions regarding her natal name. The certificate is recorded as Lambeth Q1 1934 vol 1d page 399. Her occupation is given as ‘Widow of Harry Loosemore Butcher Journeyman’. The death was registered by her son G Loosemore of 62 Bramah Road. This would be George Henry Loosemore. Bramah Road no longer exists but current maps of Lambeth show a road called Bramah Green which runs almost parallel to Akerman Road and is within easy walking distance of her former address at Thornton Street. Her husband Harry had died at the same address in 1932.

When Juliana Loosemore died in 1934 her estate was apparently left in it's entirety to her oldest son George Henry Loosemore who was a Taxi Driver. Whether or not he shared any of his inheritence with his brothers and sisters is not known. The relative worth of £149 in 1934 would today be £8,210.00
using the retail price index £8,440.00 using average earnings.

St Mary’s Square

What do we know of St Mary's Square Lambeth?

We do know that it no longer exists but has been renamed St Mary's Gardens. We know this is the same place from the census records of 1881 which position the square adjacent to Bishops Terrace. I have been able to find the square in the 1891 census but not in 1901. I will continue to try to locate it although I have found that some enumeration districts are not available for 1901.

The occupations of most of the residents of St Marys Square in 1881 were generally that of tradespeople.

It does not seem to have been an affluent area as very few of the properties are shown as having servants. I have found mention of only 4 servants in the square which seems to have comprised only about 45 properties

The houses with one servant in each and the occupation of the head of household are:

From this we can probably assume that it was a mainly working class area and by virtue of the number of occupants of each property consisted of relatively small buildings. This would tend to point to the possibility of slum clearance at the beginning of the 20th century. Because of the possible size of the properties and the lack of servants I do not believe Julia was living in as a servant at the time of her marriage and the certificate also shows no occupation for her.

Many houses on the square include the names of lodgers or boarders so it is possible that Julia when she married in 1884 was just lodging in one of the houses on the square.

I have checked the birthplace of all residents shown in the 1881 census and there is a widow and her daughter living at No 3 St Mary's Square who were born in Sherborne Dorset which is only 11 miles from Julia's home town of Buckhorn Weston. A coincidence? probably but it is possible that there was a connection with Julia and her family. Her name is Eliza Howell aged 41 and she is an office cleaner. Her unmarried daughter probably Elizabeth is 21 and a waitress. There are 3 family units residing at Number 3, a storekeeper and his wife, a carpenter, his wife and two daughters and the two Howell women. It has not been possible to find any more about Eliza and so whether or not Julia was married from No 3 is pure conjecture.

Parish Church of St Mary’s Lambeth

A photograph of St Mary's Lambeth is shown on the photographs page.

As can be seen from the photograph the Parish Church of St Mary’s Lambeth is adjacent to Lambeth Palace the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This church, because of its proximity to the London residence of the Primate, has a unique interest among the parish churches of the London area. It was for many centuries almost an adjunct of the palace, and many of its rectors have been chaplains or household officers of the Archbishop and often men of considerable eminence

The Rector of the Parish Church of St Mary Lambeth who performed the marriage of Harry and Julia was the newly appointed F G Pelham who was rector from 1884 until 1894 and who I have discovered was the 'Hon. Francis Godolphin Pelham, Fifth Earl of Chichester'. He was the second son of the third Earl and succeeded to the Earldom on the death of his brother Walter Thomas. He died in 1905 and is buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s.

The church has been a museum since the 1970’s and in the churchyard to the rear of the building is the family vault and final resting place of William Bligh renowned for his part in the Mutiny on the Bounty.

A photograph of William Bligh's tomb is shown on the photographs page.